BlackBerry slowly pulls out of power dive into toilet

BlackBerry, which began its comeback in earnest this week with a bizarre new square smartphone, posted narrower losses on slightly lower revenue in the quarter ending 30 August. Its hardware division was back in the black after five quarters of losses. To see how far and how fast BlackBerry fell, see our analysis from earlier …

[Gordon 10]

Bravo!

Havent read the article yet - just wanted to upvote the "clear the rim" line.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bravo!

I get the feeling AO has had that one ready for some time and so has been awaiting the vaguest hint of good news from BB even more eagerly than the staff, management and shareholders have been!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bravo!

Remember those good old days, when El Reg's standard reference was to "Lawsuits in Motion"? Back when the industry trembled when they took a step, as opposed to at the impact of them falling over...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bravo!

@AdamT - "I get the feeling AO has had that one ready for some time"

Orlowski shoots -- FOR THE WIN!!!! AND IT COUNTS!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bravo!

Havent read the article yet - just wanted to upvote the "clear the rim" line.

Yes, very edgy. Umm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bravo!

They've brought out the square, next it will be the round, then the oval, possibly the octagon and finally the broke.

It'll make no difference, no matter how unusual only the most insane will buy it even if it is good, which it isn't. It lacks kudos and style and its a Blackberry, even less desirable that a Winphone.

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: Bravo!

But not, never, ever, the square one with rounded corners.

[Tim Roberts 1]

Re: Bravo!

They'll really be in the shit if they don't

[Steve Davies 3]

Already quoting their losses for 2015?

Wow that is some futuristic phone.....

[OrinokoMatt]

If they do pull back, and I really hope they do, then it'll have been an amazing turnaround. The Z30 was a great device that and the new Passport and BES12 really hold promise.

Hopefully the unfounded bashing of everything BB will stop but I think that'll take a while yet..

[Anonymous Coward]

I expected the new phone to be very niche but was surprised to see it's the #1 top-seller of unlocked phones on amazon. Good luck to them.

[DNTP]

I want a WTPh now that they are called that.

[Swarthy]

I like "What-The-Phone?!", which is how I read WTPh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice to see Blackberry doing something different from the rest of the herd with their phone.

In the current snooper climate, I'm surprised that RIM are not making more of their traditional stamping ground, that of security. If they could go that extra mile to assure users that they cannot access emails and messages even if approached by governments, then that would be a huge selling feature over the likes of Apple and Google.

[wolfetone]

Because, as can be seen by the nudie celebrity photos, no one gives a damn about privacy until it's too late. Plus, I'd question how secure BlackBerry are if the President has one. Even if China can't hack in to it, doesn't mean the US can't.

But I'm glad for BlackBerry. I'm already saving up to buy the Passport!

[jonathanb]

Can the government access emails and messages stored on my Exchange Server and accessed on my Apple and Android devices?

Maybe they can, but adding Blackberry in between my server and my phone can can only ever increase the attack surface, not reduce it.

[psychonaut]

just trying to get a blackberry to connect to your exchange service can be more than tricky...

[Bill Gates]

Just because the dead cat bounces when it hits the ground does not mean its not dead.

[Anonymous Coward]

10 million iPhone 6s sold and counting...

Apple in a weekend sold 10 million iPhone 6s and that number is only increasing by the day. Meanwhile Blackberry have had 200,000 orders for their WTF phone...

Pretty impressive going from Blackberry considering I'm yet to find a carrier selling it and they don't have the hype or the advertising budget that Apple have. If their enterprise software turns out to be the real deal then that number could quite easily hit 2 million. If I were a gambling man I'd buy shares in them...

[psychonaut]

Re: 10 million iPhone 6s sold and counting...

look, screw apple - who cares? they will make a tonne of money regardless. theres loads of twats out there. at least bb are doing something interesting - i looked at the new square one and thought, well, thats stupid. but actually...im kind of intrigued. same way i was when the samsung note came out. what? its how big? well actually....that looks good....so i got one. ITS NOW my favourite phone ever (note 2) - i Havent had the opportunity to upgrade to the 3 but im due one now - and now the 4 is coming out...but, that swipeable keyboard, a return to actual buttons on a keyboard (i had the nokia n900 and thought that was genius...turned to shit as nokia dropped it soon after releasing it - that could have been a seriously good piece of kit...flip out keyboard, touch screen, really fast, but absolutely no support in the end).

ive never owned a bb, in fact i dont like them, never have, that one that had the screen that you could push as if it was a button (i mean for fucks sake!) pain in the arse to configure, doesnt work with hosted exchange until recently, still a pain in the arse with exchange, maybe thats changed, i dont know...if it hasnt, then im steering clear (exchange is it, i dont do anything else. it "just works" tm)

[bazza]

Re: 10 million iPhone 6s sold and counting...

@psychonat,

" doesnt work with hosted exchange until recently, still a pain in the arse with exchange, maybe thats changed"

I use a Z10 with a rented Exchange server, works like a dream. Seems to get notifications quicker than Outlook connected to the same server.

[404]

Re: 10 million iPhone 6s sold and counting...

@psychonaut

I love my Note 3 - best compromise between carrying both tablet and phone - clients also appreciate using a stylus for CC payments instead of a finger - one package. Great phone thus far. Clash of Clans plays magnificently ;)

However, my post concerns the BB Storm and Storm2, which were very capable phones that did their jobs *very* well. I owned the Storm2, that 'click' screen was great*, only degraded with wet fingers but still operable. I wanted the BB Torch but Verizon got the substandard version without the qwerty slider kb. Both Storm2s we have still sit on standby.

Seriously, the day Blackberry dies, will be a sad day and I *will* shed a tear if they do not pull it out.

* as with life, it depends on what you're used to. Email would fly off that Storm with blurred thumbs...

[psychonaut]

Re: 10 million iPhone 6s sold and counting...

yeah, thats right, in the same way that matsui probably sold more hifi units than say nad, but lets not kid oursleves, which one was better?